


If you're the company you keep I'm holding on to you

by fabulous_but_evil



Series: Hierarchy of Needs [4]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Caretaking, Episode: s06e12 Corazón, Fluff, Headaches & Migraines, I Came Out To Write Smut But I'm Honestly Feeling The Fluff Right Now, M/M, Multi, Trans Character, Trans Derek, Trans Male Character, Trans Spencer Reid, it's not like it's revelant for the story i just want you to know they aren't cis, this is by far the fluffiest installment in this series lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-10-05 02:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17316245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabulous_but_evil/pseuds/fabulous_but_evil
Summary: Spencer isn't fine, Hotch notices, and Derek takes care of him.





	1. Chapter 1

They can all see it. It's so obvious, they can practically /sense/ it.

Reid isn't fine. Like, at all.

It's not like they don't have a job to do. But Hotch isn't just their boss either. He's their lover and caretaker, too, and he knows that what Reid doesn't need right now is teaming up with one of his bosses/Doms, two men who can get quite impatient when working on a case. What - or rather who - he needs right now is his boyfriend.

That's why Hotch decides to pair him up with Derek, at least for the day.

*

Somehow, Spencer survives.

He sits on the hotel bed in the room he and Derek share, his head in his hands, trying to will his murderous headache away.

"Everything alright?," Derek asks, stepping out of the shower.

Spencer looks up at him from between his fingers, forcing himself to smile. "Yeah, just a headache."

Derek's worry fades, even if only a bit, and he grins at him. "I know something that might help."

"You're an idiot," Spencer says, but his face softens, and he takes Derek's hand when he offers it, pulls him closer and lets Derek bend down to kiss him.


	2. Chapter 2

For the rest of the duration of the case, Spencer continues to not be fine. Like, at all.

Everyone in the team notices, because of fucking course they do. They're family, after all.

(And yes, like all families, they used to simply not talk about their problems. They kept quiet about their childhood traumas, about their weaknesses, about how their hands still trembled weeks after they shot another serial killer, for several reasons. But with Spencer, everything's quite different. He survived losing Gideon and a drug addiction. He's the strongest of them all, simply because he lets others see that he's fragile, and they'd hate to see him break.)

It doesn't get much better anytime soon, quite the opposite actually: It goes so far that one of their suspects even breaks into a religious mania for the sole purpose of telling him to  _fucking take care of himself_.

They eventually catch the killer, although it involves an Spencer trying to take out their suspect single-handedly, which reminds Hotch and Derek of their early days together, when Spencer still used to go into hostage situations without his vest on, and it scares them all half to death.

Somehow, Spencer survives, and Hotch makes sure to check in with him.

"Are you alright?," he asks, and stares him down like he knows he isn't.

"Yeah, yeah, I just have a headache...," he says, and leaves, leaving Hotch to stare holes into his back, more than just concerned.

(They wouldn't be a real family if they talked about their problems now, would they?)


End file.
